General Taxation

Ulmer & Berne’s tax attorneys advise clients on the tax implications of all business and personal transactions.  We work closely with other lawyers in the Firm to provide a seamless integration of tax and business counsel.  Our depth of knowledge and experience enables us to deal with the broad range of tax issues faced by our clients, whether large or small, corporate or individual.  Some of the services our tax attorneys provide to clients include:

  • Tax counsel with respect to the purchase and sale of businesses in taxable and nontaxable transactions;
  • Tax planning relating to the creation or changing of business structures, including corporate separations;
  • Implementing like-kind and other tax-free or tax-deferred exchanges;
  • Representing clients in all phases of tax controversy matters;
  • Negotiating and settling tax collection matters;
  • Obtaining advance rulings from the Internal Revenue Service to assure the tax consequences of a proposed transaction;
  • Succession planning for family businesses, including developing business and tax strategies necessary to meet family goals;
  • Wealth transfer planning, including the creation of family limited partnerships, trusts and gifting programs;
  • Analyzing tax aspects of litigation, including employment-related disputes;
  • Structuring tax-advantaged investments, including low income housing tax credit, historic rehabilitation tax credit and other real estate syndications;
  • Forming and assisting in the operation of tax-exempt organizations; and
  • Counseling with respect to the issuance of tax-exempt bonds, including municipal and industrial revenue bonds.
Attorneys
Lewis T. Barr
B. Scott Boster
John C. Goheen
James A. Goldsmith
Neil W. Gurney
Ronald L. Kahn
Brian M. Power
Stuart A. Schloss, Jr.
Stuart R. Susskind
Patrick J. Tulley
Frederick N. Widen

 

Clients

 

Representative Experience

Serving as tax counsel to a national qualified intermediary and accommodator with respect to Section 1031 exchanges.

Serving as counsel to various Cincinnati arts organizations.  Our work includes historic tax credits, federal and state grants and financing arrangements, bond facilities, formation and corporate governance matters, and obtaining and maintaining tax-exempt status.

Representing various clients in real estate tax shelter matters.

Structured the $15 million sale of an S corporation cemetery management company as a forward cash merger to achieve single-level of tax for sellers and fair market value cost basis for purchaser.

Utilized Section 338(h)(10), deemed asset sale structure, to successfully close the sale of a family-owned manufacturer of hydraulic and pneumatic coupling devices to a publicly traded company for a purchase price of $21 million. 

Counseled a manufacturing/distributor client on the preservation of tax attributes in a major acquisition/bankruptcy restructuring.

Participated in reverse Section 1031 exchange transactions worth $8 million involving the sale of a parking garage in exchange for property leased to a public company and a shopping center in Cape Coral, Florida.

Closed a transaction involving the purchase of membership interests in a limited liability company that owned certain real property in connection with a Section 1033 exchange (involuntary conversion).

Managed a Section 1031 exchange of multiple apartment projects worth more than $60 million, including the liquidation of various partnerships and the refinancing of apartment projects with HUD and various insurance companies.

Structured the sale of a 100,000 square foot shopping center in Canton, Ohio as a Section 1031 exchange.

Represented a commercial real estate firm in the sale of two nationally known drug stores located in the Baltimore, Maryland area.  The transaction, part of a Section 1031 exchange, involved the sale of limited liability company membership interests in two separate companies that owned the real property and improvements.

Represented a limited liability company in the acquisition of limited partnership and general partnership interests of a limited partnership completing a Section 1031 exchange. 

Represented a leasing corporation in establishing a program that would provide for a significant portion of their equipment sales and purchases to be treated as tax free exchanges.  Strategy predated Internal Revenue Private letter rulings permitting tax-free exchange treatment.

Assisted a large developer in restructuring entities to facilitate the transfer of ownership interests in developments to key employees.  In addition, we also implemented a transfer of additional interest into a family limited partnership for the same developer and simplified the structure for ongoing operations through the use of a master limited liability company. 

Represented a large equipment dealer and lessor in the sale of the business to a public company. 

Represented numerous employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) in the structuring of business acquisitions and dispositions. 

Represented clients in the transfer of real estate to real estate investment trusts. 

Represented health care providers in sales to public companies.

Provided tax advice and counseling to professional corporations in the fields of medicine, dentistry, law, accounting and psychology, among others.

Represented a long-standing Cleveland company in a reverse tax-deferred like-kind exchange involving construction of a new facility.

Participated in reverse 1031 exchange transactions worth $8 million involving the sale of a parking garage in exchange for property leased to a public company and a shopping center in Cape Coral, Fla.

Managed a tax-free exchange of multiple apartment projects, worth more than $60 million, involving the liquidation of various partnerships and the refinancing of apartment projects with HUD and various insurance companies.

 

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